Medard and Fortune exchange vows
By George Bukenya
Religious leaders cite loopholes in the new marriage and divorce bill which they say has inconsistencies and will be challenge in courts of law in some circumstances.
The current Marriage Act as enshrined in Uganda’s Constitution recognizes Civil, Church, and Customary, Islamic and Hindu marriages. The law requires that religious institutions and Customary marriage should file returns on the marriages they conduct for government to recognize such.
The Presiding Apostle of the Born Again Faith in Uganda Dr. Joseph Sserwada argued that if the new bill is passed into law as it is, will cause polygamous in Christian Marriage which contradicts the church norms of monogamous.
“In the new marriage bill proposal which we didn’t discuss as religious leaders, civil marriage will become polygamous because even Christian marriage is also considered as civil after churches have filed returns to the registrar of marriage, this then need to be separated to a void contradiction of the church norms and teachings,’’ Dr. Sserwada reasoned.
‘’There’s nothing like Islamic marriage, in the marriage Act we have a Mohammed Marriage, Christian Marriage which NIRA define as Church Marriage doesn’t also apply because all along such marriage have been regarded as Civil Marriage,’’ he noted.
He also said that there’re certain marriage systems that are not catered for in the new bill although he didn’t elaborate more on this.
Dr. Sserwada asserted that government changes of moving the registration of marriage and filling of returns by the players in the different institutions conducting lawful marriage from Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs to Ministry of Internal Affairs will not affect their services because these are all government entities.
“ What we want is the marriages that are recognized by law, that are officiated to the satisfaction of the respective faith, it doesn’t matter which government ministry or agency controls it,’’ he said.
The Legal Counsel for the Ecclesiastic conference Fredrick Ssemwanga says that the moving of the department of marriage registration from Uganda Registration Service Bureau (URSB) to National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) will help to improve service delivery because filling of returns by churches can be done online.
Although according to Counsel Ssemwaga this saves time and it’s convenient, it poses a challenge in that people in remote rural areas where there’s no electric power transmission will find it hard to use the system. Secondly churches will need to invest more in the acquisition of information technology equipment and the necessary man power.
“ There’s inadequacy in the new bill, it allows moslem under article 129 to resolve marriage disputes under cad course and the outcome is recognized yet for other religious institution like the Catholic Church which has Ecclesiastic court when marriage disputes are tried here government doesn’t recognise the results,’’ Ssemwanga argued.
He further said, “ in the new marriage bill we want also church courts to be recognized their outcome in case of marriage disputes be biding.’’ He said.
The Commissioner in charge of Civil Registration at NIRA, Vincent Katutsi said that marriage registration is ideally important because helps in solving disputes for instance if the one of the spouse passes on, the remaining one can be able to claim his/ her entitlements say from NSSF even when migrating from one country to another for visa acquisition for both spouses the evidence required here is a marriage certificate.
“ Citizens must appreciate the need to register their marriage and get a marriage certificate, for its of great importance, for instance one can’t get employee benefits like medical insurance for his spouse or children from her employers when he/she doesn’t have such certificate,’’ Katutsi said.
He also said this while speaking to reporters after a half day workshop conducted at NIRA offices along Nakasero Road in Kampala. The Workshop intended to deliberate about the marriage registration attracted religious leaders, cultural institution and civil society organizations.
Katutsi also said that in Uganda the law doesn’t recognized Proxy marriage because while conducting the service there must be consent of both parties intending to enter into marriage by exercising free will and under zoom technology one can prove the existence of such party entering into vows.